News Release

Research results published today in the New England Journal
of Medicine, reveal that Gulf War veterans who remained on active
duty had no unexpected increase in hospitalizations after the
war.

A team of scientists, from the Department of Defense, the
University of California, San Diego, and the Department Veterans
Affairs studied the hospitalizations of 1.1 million veterans.
The researchers looked at a broad spectrum of diagnosis from
August 1991 until September 1993. Screening the 487,549
hospitalizations, the team found that the 547,076 Gulf War
veterans had the same postwar overall hospitalization experience
as their 618,333 non-deployed peers of the same era.

Scientific team leader, Captain Greg Gray, a physician
epidemiologist at the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego,
reported that this work and another paper from the Department of
Veterans Affairs published in the same issue of the New England
Journal of Medicine, are some of the first large-scale studies to
compare health outcomes among Gulf War veterans with appropriate
comparison groups of other active duty personnel. "Although many
Gulf War veterans were hospitalized after the war, our data show
that other military personnel of that era had a similar
experience," said Gray.

According to Gray, these studies and similar studies, will
help to evaluate the reports of unexplained illnesses among Gulf
War veterans. Gray reported that his group and other groups of
scientists are performing numerous other studies among Gulf War
veterans. Gray's team is coordinating studies that focus upon
symptoms, reproductive health and hospitalizations among various
groups of veterans. One such study will compare hospitalizations
among Gulf War veterans who may have been exposed to the
destruction of Iraq's Khamisiyah ammunition dump in March 1991.

While this study does not reveal any direct relationship to
Gulf War illnesses, the Department of Defense is fully committed
and currently engaged in further research to better understand
the causes of these illnesses and to provide the best possible
medical treatment of our Gulf War Veterans, said Bernard
Rostker, Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense for
Gulf War Illnesses.

This study comparing hospitalization experiences between
Gulf War and non-Gulf War personnel found differences between the
two populations, but these differences were consistent with
research findings from other wars and attributed to other
reasons.

Gulf War veterans had a different risk of hospitalization
than did non-deployed veterans in 16 of 42 diagnostic category
comparisons. In four of these 16 different comparisons, Gulf War
veterans were at increased risk: neoplasms during 1991 (largely
benign), diseases of the
genitourinary system during 1992, diseases of the blood and blood-
forming organs during 1992 (mostly anemias), and mental disorders
during 1992. These differences were not consistent over time and
could be explained by deferred care, postwar pregnancies, and
postwar stress.

The Department of Defense appreciates the recognition of
the New England Journal of Medicine by publishing this important
research, said Rostker. This is an important study in our
continuing search for the causes of Gulf War illnesses.